TSHF Hall of Fame induction Friday for Marynell Meadors

Feb 08, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Former Tennessee Tech women's basketball and
volleyball coach Marynell Meadors, currently the coach of the
WNBA's Atlanta Dream, will be inducted Friday into the Tennessee
Sports Hall of Fame. The dinner is at the Renaissance Hotel in
Nashville, with a reception at 6 p.m. and the diner and induction
beginning at 7 p.m.

A limited number of tickets to the event are available for $125
per person. For tickets to the event, please call the Tennessee
Sports Hall of Fame at 615-242-4750.

Meadors established the tradition-rich women's basketball
program at Tech and led her team to more than 350 wins in 16
seasons.

Raised in Nashville and a graduate of Hillsboro High School,
Meadors decided in the seventh grade her future was coaching
women’s basketball. Following graduation from high school,
she attended Middle Tennessee State and there began coaching
women’s basketball before it became a varsity sport and prior
to Title IX.

In 1970 following the passage of Title IX, she moved to Cookeville
and became the women’s head basketball coach at Tennessee
Tech. She coached the Golden Eagles for 16 seasons, compiling a
363-138 (.724) lifetime record. While coaching at Tech, she won six
consecutive Tennessee state championships and four Ohio Valley
Conference championships. She was twice named Ohio Valley
Conference Coach of the year and became the first major
women’s college coach to win 350 games at one
institution.

In 1986, Meadors accepted the head coaching position at Florida
State University where she led the program for 10 years. In 1991,
the Seminoles won the Metro Conference Championship and advanced to
the second round of the NCAA.

Meadors is currently the head coach and general manager of the
Atlanta Dream of the Women’s National Basketball Association
and was one of the original eight head coaches when the WNBA was
formed in 1997.

Along with the inductees, a number of individual and team
“honorees” will be recognized at the annual banquet.
Those recipients will include the Male and Female Amateur Athlete
of the Year, and the Professional Athletes of the Year.

The Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame is a statewide, nonprofit
organization founded in 1966 to honor and preserve outstanding
sports achievements in Tennessee.